Too cold to brrr-eak and enter!

The credit crunch and cold weather could be behind an 80 per cent drop in crime on Christmas Day in Wokingham.

Christmas crooks decided against a festive crime spree, with offences from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day down nearly 25 per cent and just 22 incidents reported on New Year’s Eve.

Christmas Day was a particularly crime-free one, with just four crimes reported to police, down from 21 on the big day in 2007.

Chief Inspector Denise Blackburn, of Wokingham police, admitted officers are unsure of the exact reasons for such a big drop but said potential burglars could have decided to stay at home due to the cold.

She added revellers could have given nights out on Christmas Eve a miss due to lack of cash, leading to a reduction in the number of violent incidents at the town’s nightspots.

The four Christmas Day crimes were an assault, an assault without injury, a burglary in the early hours of the morning and an incident of criminal damage to a house.

Between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day police recorded 28 crimes, compared to 37 in 2007.

The number of assaults dropped from six to one and the number of burglaries stayed the same at two.

Although burglaries at people’s homes were down raids on businesses rose from one to four.

Police also caught more people carrying cannabis, with arrests rising from four to five.